


Unconditional

by scifisentai



Category: Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger
Genre: Gen, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 15:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10811925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scifisentai/pseuds/scifisentai
Summary: Yukito doesn't like kids. Too bad for him he's still a sucker for them anyway.





	Unconditional

The first time Ryouga gave him Mai to hold, Yukito panicked. He wasn’t good with children - even ones as usually well-behaved as Mai was - and he hated to think what would happen if he dropped her by mistake. Children were awkward things, especially when they were that young, and it was a source of great annoyance that while he wasn’t comfortable around children at all, he seemed to be a sucker for them when they wanted something. Or maybe that was just Mai, who was so like Ryouga sometimes it was unnerving. The pair of them were so similar and so co-dependent that Yukito was sure it couldn’t be healthy.

Still, Ryouga seemed to think that if he couldn’t be there for Mai for whatever reason, then Yukito was a perfectly acceptable substitute. “But Sanjou-san,” Ryouga replied when he complained, “Mai-chan likes you and it won’t be for long, anyway.” Then he’d flashed those damned peace signs, fingers framing his face as he grinned and added “Have fun!” Patting Yukito on the shoulder, Ryouga made his escape before he could point out that Mai liked Ranru and Emiri as well and that they’d probably be much more comfortable looking after Ryouga’s de facto daughter than he was.

He turned to find Mai standing in the doorway to the private quarters of the Dino House and she smiled brightly, seeming not to notice his scowl. He sighed and resigned himself to whatever Mai decided they were going to do while Ryouga was gone. Which hopefully wouldn’t be long.

It took several of these events for Yukito to fully comprehend how much trust Ryouga had in him, that the other man wasn’t worried about leaving Mai with him despite his lack of ability with children and when realisation finally dawned he didn’t quite know what to do with it. Unconditional trust was something he had extremely little experience with - most of which came from Ryouga and Mai - and he wasn’t, couldn’t be, as accepting as they were; somebody needed to be sensible about how things were, simply to counter that pair’s naïveté and the damage it could unwittingly cause.

Still, when Mai fell asleep next to him while Ryouga was doing… something at the fridge, Yukito couldn’t help the absent-minded pat on her head, brushing her curls out of her face so she wouldn’t start choking on her hair or anything. That was when he became acutely aware of the silence, a silence so sudden it was almost deafening and he glanced over to the fridge to find Ryouga watching them with a soft smile on his face; a smile that became a smug grin when Ryouga realised Yukito was glaring at him. It was a sad fact that even his best scowls had little to no effect on Ryouga except to encourage him in whatever idiocy he was doing, so it came as no surprise when instead of backing off like a normal person would, Ryouga only laughed at him.

Yukito sighed and leant back against the wall in resignation, pointedly ignoring Ryouga as he made his way back over. How he’d ended up with this pair of children he would never know.


End file.
